Kian, Cortez and April
by Crazypreacher
Summary: Just one of the theories about who is who in Dreamfall and a little shipping. Warnings: Massive spoilers for both TLJ and Dreamfall, death of a major character, and hints of romance between a young girl and a much older man.
1. Chapter 1

Kian left the prison with a now habitual to him sense of accomplishment. The road he walked was quite empty, so even though he was still absorbed in his thoughts about this young "witch" girl, his sharp (as expected of an Imperial Soldier) attention was caught by a woman walking towards him. It is not that she was particularly attractive – quite the opposite, in fact; she was seriously unkempt, her clothes drab and tattered, her shoulder-length hair unevenly cut, her expression pale, haggard and gloomy. But there was something about her walk and poise that seemed uncharacteristic of both Azadi ladies and Marcurian females. She seemed shifty, unsecure yet at the same time grim, resolved and far too masculine - such a contrast to graceful Azadi women and lively, unconstrained Marcurians.

Still, it was not the difference about her that attracted his interest, but the aching feeling of familiarity. It was ridiculous to think he has seen her before, and yet that was how it felt. He wanted to stop her, but what could he do? What would he say? Still, he had to start somehow.

"Pardon me, mistress…" She looks up, startled. "I am new to the city and I seek a place to buy a hot meal".

She answers something, but he doesn't hear. He is too caught up with the improbability, the unnaturality of his situation. He hadn't met that many people in his life, what with living his childhood in an orphanage and his youth and adult years as a trainee and later a soldier. Everyone he had met, he remembered, and he surely would remember such an alien woman.

She speaks no more. He thanks her, and she starts to walk away. He grows desperate. When one can't come up with anything else, one has to tell the truth.

"Pardon, mistress… Do I know you from somewhere? You are familiar to me".

She shrugs. "I don't think so. Who are you?"

He wants to answer with an alias prepared in advance but something stops him. _If I want to get the truth, I have to be honest also. _

Kian Alvane introduces himself and momentarily understands that it was a mistake. She steps back, her expression changes from aloof to fierce and disgusted.

"Why are you telling me this?"

_Indeed, why? She is surely not fond of us Azadi. I wonder, why? I ruined everything._

"It seemed the right thing to do, Mistress". _I grow into more of a fool with every passing moment._ "Perhaps, I wanted to know what you truly think of my people".

This half-baked excuse was meant to pacify her, but it does the exact opposite. She launches into the long tirade about ghettos and freedom and religion, which was probably building up for a long painful time. He listens and doesn't understand. And along with misunderstanding and frustration his anger builds up. Her otherness, which seemed exotic at first, now seems an insult to him.

He answers sharply, almost without thinking. He is honestly surprised that she doesn't understand the simplest and most obvious things, for she does seem intelligent. What is more surprising is that even his perfectly lucid arguments don't sway her.

She turns to leave, and his grievance disappears without a trace. He has scared her off, how could he? He'll have a lot of time to persuade her, not now. Now there is a more important subject to discuss.

She shakes her head at his repeated question. "We're from very different worlds… in more ways than you can possibly imagine".

_That much I have seen for myself already._

"Maybe I can learn about your world and you about mine". The words spring to his mouth, probably the most sincere that he has ever spoken. Yet she is untouched. He suddenly feels very tired, more tired than after an entire day on a training ground. It's useless to try and get something else from her now. Maybe the next time with a different approach…

They part, and it's not until he takes the turn on his left when he understands that he doesn't even know her name.


	2. Chapter 2

April Ryan walked out of the Border House feeling that the world, in spite of everything, was a pretty good place. Before she saw him sitting on a bench, that is.

_Damn! That creep again. That's okay though, I'll just go by real quick with my head down and…_

"Oye, senorita!"

_Shit._

"How are you this morning, senorita bonita?"

"Busy".

_I wish I could tell the cops on him, but I don't even know his name… Emma told me, but I forgot… Wait, what's this accent? It sounds… fake._

He says something about her show. She agrees distractedly, and only then it hits her. _How the hell does he know?!_

"See you around". When she says that, he turns surprisingly (and sincerely) upset. Not of a crazy jealous stalker kind, as she would expect, but in a rather relaxed and understanding way.

"Sunshine and pretty senoritas give an old man like me the blues. I'd prefer my world to be in black and white".

"Like an old movie?" she asks idly.

"Like all good movies". _Huh. _She looks at him closely. Now, if you think about that, he doesn't really look like a bum – and she would know, because if there is one thing Newport has in spades, it's bums. He is clean and doesn't look drunk or high, or even hungry for that matter. He sounds pretty articulate and coherent, which is more than she can say for many people with a roof over their head. It's weird to say, but there is even something dignified about him.

"And how would you describe your perfect day, senorita Ryan?"

Normally she would just excuse herself and run and that would be that, but his remark about the old movies warmed her up a little.

"Cold and rainy, like yours".

"Ah!" he smiles. "We're birds of a feather, like they say. And for that, I'll help you. You, senorita, are troubled by nightmares…"

_What._

"What?! I don't know what you've been taking, but stay the hell away from me and my personal life!" This wasn't particularly eloquent, but he does seem to back up a little.

"Perdoname". It sounds like he really means it… or does it? "I hope we can talk again soon?"

_Not in a million years._

It was probably the first time in her life when she was so eager to get to school. While preparing her paints and brushes, she had some time to calm down and think it over.

_He's obviously not the one he pretends to be… even if I'm not sure who he pretends to be, either. But why does he fake his accent and what business does he have with me and the Border House? He may be a crook, but he's been hanging out there for some time. If he really was one, we'd have been pillaged a hundred times already, and then some. Maybe, a spy? Well, that sure is one kickass undercover – being a walking punchline of the entire house. He probably stalks me, but even so, how does he know what I dream about? And did he say something about saving the world and stuff?_

_The thing is… He doesn't look that crazy. Because either he is sane, or we both are not. And I'm pretty sure two people can't have same hallucinations…_

Her brushes glide on the canvas, but her mind is still far away.

_Anyway, the talk with him sure went better than I expected. I mean, I'm not going to talk to him again anytime soon, but I can think of a few ways this could have gone worse._


	3. Chapter 3

Kian was lying awake in his bed and listening to his heartbeat, motionless, with his eyes open.

Dreams. He had never remembered them, preferring to concentrate on his real life and his mission. And, of course, it would never come to his mind to interpret them, for this was known to be foul sorcery. But recently he had started seeing dreams he could never forget, as much as he may have wanted to.

In his dreams, he found himself in some strange, otherworldly locations. Something that looked like a courtyard, with landscapes not dissimilar to those of this land painted on the house walls for some reason, an inside of a strange, tall and dark building, which, in a peculiar way, seemed a mockery of the Goddess' temples, or, like today, a huge and flat surface that must have been miles above the ground, with thousands of beaming lights below and around it. The locations changed, but there was one thing that always remained. The woman.

She was much younger and significantly more attractive, but it was unmistakably her – the woman at the Friar's Keep. Kian felt a wave of shame washing over himself, when he remembered the revealing clothing (if one could even call it that) she was wearing in his dreams. The Goddess who sees into the hearts and the dreams of humans would surely smite him for defiling a woman he doesn't even know with his lecherous imagination.

If he could be afraid at all, he would be now – not even because of the fantasies, but because of the feelings that flooded his heart each time he dreamed about this woman or recalled her while awake – which was rather often lately. It was a feeling of finding someone long lost and very dear after a long and tiresome ordeal without them. These dreams did not felt like dreams to him, but more like a repressed memory – a memory of something that could have never probably happened.

Kian had never known a woman – it was unlikely that a lowly orphan like him would find someone willing to marry him, and so he resolved to belong to the Goddess alone. Now that one thinks about it, this was probably for the best, for even the thoughts of the woman had distracted him from his duty in a significant way. What would happen if he actually entered a relationship with one?

He takes a deep breath and for the millionth time in his life whispers a prayer to the Goddess, that she may forgive him for his transgressions and help him to find and fulfill the destiny that she has prescribed to him before the beginning of time.

And for the first time in his life, it doesn't help.


	4. Chapter 4

_01/08/2209_

_Spirit Dig_

_Tuesday morning._

_As for Charlie...does he really LOVE me? I mean, like, love-love me? I had no idea. No, that's a lie. I guess I had some idea, but I didn't really want to deal with it, because I just don't feel that way about him. He's sweet and kind and...I simply have a tendency to fall for the wrong guys, for the wrong reasons. Like now. Like with...oh, no, I'm not even gonna think about THAT._

_April's Diary (The Longest Journey)_

* * *

_So, Charlie is in love with me_, April thought after waking up in the Spirit Dig.

She really should have seen it coming, though: the way he suddenly grew shy, when she would ask him about girlfriends, the way he would brag about his future brilliant career at every opportunity while talking to her, his wariness of the boys she talked to… Well, if that's really so, things are working out just fine. Charlie is a handsome guy, he is talented and smart and caring, he's one of her two only best friends, and having him as a boyfriend would only bring them closer. She should be proud, in fact, because he has chosen her while Emma was always around – and anyone who has seen Emma would understand what it means. Everything's perfect, right?

_Yeah… if only._

As hard as April tried to be enthusiastic about the news, she couldn't. She didn't want to own up even to herself that her head had been somewhere else, but that was true. The only thing she could hope for was that it wasn't too obvious.

_Charlie is one of the best guys around, Cortez is a town weirdo and like three times my age at least. Trust me to make the wrong choice._

He wasn't _really_ that way, though; he was just putting up his oddball act, the same way he faked his overblown Mexican accent. But April knew that, because she actually was crazy enough to talk to him for longer than thirty seconds. Others didn't.

Or maybe, she didn't know it, also. Maybe, she just wanted to believe that there was some real intelligence and care behind his jerky manners and his weird non-explanations. Maybe, she was just a lonely idiot, who couldn't bear all the academic pressure and the weird happenings on her own, without having a sugar daddy around.

_Yeah, April. You never really had a father, and it shows. Way to go all Electra._

She moans from the shame and growing feeling of desperation and rises to her feet. _It's morning already. I should go see the Elder. _

Only years down the road will she understand that there was something that only Cortez could provide, apart from guidance: kinship. In a world full of normal people that finds itself in an abnormal situation, the only hope to save the day comes from the abnormal people – like Cortez. Like her.


	5. Chapter 5

Kian is weary from the lack of sleep and the heavy thoughts that have been plaguing him lately, but when he sees the person standing at the other end of the pier, his drowsiness is gone. He can barely believe it, and it takes him everything not to run towards her.

She is as surprised to see him as he is to see her, but certainly not as happy.

"You… followed me here? What are you doing here?"

"Please, let me explain…" Long has he been thinking over what he will say to her if, by the fancy of the Goddess, he meets her again, but now that he's standing under her cold stare, he has nothing to say but the truth that he has kept in his heart from the inquisitive eyes of corrupt officials for so long. She listens patiently, without interrupting. He falls silent, exhausted, when he has nothing to say anymore.

"Bravo", she slowly says. "You almost had me going there for a moment, Apostle".

_You… how dare you...! I… no. I must keep my mind clear. I will not make the same mistake again._

"I believe, mistress", he musters the rest of his courage to say it, "I believe that he Goddess has brought me to you". He expects what happens.

Nothing. "I don't believe in destiny," she says as calmly as before. This surprises him, for, if he has said that to any woman back in Sadir, it would be considered an incredibly and almost indecently frank display of affection. "If you seek enlightenment here, Azadi, you've come to the wrong person".

Her calm demeanor soothes him to an extent, and he grows bold enough to demand: "The name is Kian, mistress". He adds: "And I do not seek enlightenment, but only justice".

She thinks a little. "I guess I owe you a name. I'm April". By all intends and purposes, she could be lying. But he knows she doesn't. He has known her name before. A little more, and he will know from where.

"I believe you're an honest man, Kian". His heart fills with gratitude for not stomping on his bared soul, as she has almost done just a moment before.

"I still don't understand –"

She never finishes her sentence as the air is pierced with the sound of a cloudship's steam motor.


	6. Chapter 6

"Cortez!" She runs towards her savior as fast as she can. "Where have you been?" Her voice trembles, and if she was anymore sensitive, she would cry like a baby now. But she doesn't even care at this point.

"Were you worried about me?" he says like nothing has happened. _Are you even fucking serious?!_

"You weren't there for me, when I needed you".

"Forgive me, senorita. I've been… indisposed".

_Actually, yes, he was. I have dreamed it myself that night. And since he has finally come and saved me, it means, McCallen was wrong after all. It seems he hasn't left me for good. That doesn't mean I going to forgive him so quickly though, does it?_

"Have you told me everything I should know, Cortez?"

"I told you all I can tell you".

"Yeah. Sure". _Sometimes I think that's actually the only English phrase he knows. And the worst thing is that I don't really care. I'm just happy he's alive._

"We must get you away from McCallen", Cortez says, suddenly worried. "He's a very dangerous-"

Suddenly, the doors to the roof slide open.


	7. Chapter 7

Kian watches in shock as April falls into water. He understands what has happened, but in the back of his mind there is still that irrational wonder at the fact that she doesn't come out and stand up again as she is supposed to. He has seen death before – he has brought it on before – and it would be lying to say that it did not completely affect him, but the deaths of others have caused only purely physical, visceral disgust – one that is fairly easy to overcome. Never before has the death concerned him in particular.

In fact, on a purely rational level, it still hasn't. There is no reason for him to be torn up, for this woman was not different from all the others. And yet the moment her body touched the water, all the heavenly bodies went out and all the sounds became muffled.

It seems that as he was talking to her just an eternity ago, he said that he still hesitated. He may have been right, but now, he mercifully hesitates no more. This woman, whoever she really was, shall be avenged and the will of the Goddess shall be done.

* * *

April stands on the edge of the roof, watching as the Red Kin and the Green Kin are falling down together. She waits when Cortez will rise up (he can't lose, it's Cortez, after all!), but that doesn't happen. She waits some more, but nothing changes. She doesn't understand.

And then a horrible thought comes to her mind. _Maybe, I should check the watch._

She doesn't want to, but she has to be sure. She can't stand here forever, as much as she would like to.

The watch has stopped.

_He's gone. Everybody I love dies. Everybody I… love._

She cries a little, and only when it's obvious that crying really doesn't help, she slowly starts putting one foot in front of the other in such a way that she leaves the Vanguard headquarters.


	8. Chapter 8

The human settlement just beneath the mountain's feet is buzzing with life. Azadis drive their cattle, their children run and play between the tents, some woman is scolding her former husband, than gives him a tent and says to go and live alone.

The Red Kin is resting in the enormous mountain cave. His egg is also safely hidden here, away from the scorching sun.

These are dark times, and in the times like these it is necessary to have a way to return, so as not to leave your task before the balance and the ones you care for. Thankfully, if anything happens to him know, he will be reborn in his own child, as is the Kin's way.

The poor girl is probably scared of herself. May she have no fear or shame, for it is expected for creatures of the same nature to feel attraction towards one another. Now that he will not die, she will not be left alone and her heart will not be broken.


End file.
